The USAID PEER program is implemented by the US National Academies of Science and is meant to leverage US Government investments in research and develop to support USAID’s development goals in priority countries.

Developing country applicants must be partnered with a US researcher who has an existing award from NSF (or an award from one of the other participating US government funding agencies).

This is an excellent idea that can be transferred to other areas should NSF wish to. For example, the Directorate for EHR could spawn a new D&I program in which program announcements and solicitations are developed for PI’s of currently funded NSF projects to partner up and collaborate with disabled scientists who are U.S. citizens. This would help to achieve better representation of funded scientists who are disabled physically, mentally or in a combination of both but are not able to compete as PI’s on grant proposals to NSF due to a general unwillingness of non-disabled peers to work with them. NSF Director Dr. France A. Córdova, are you willing to look into this? Thanks. — From a retired, disabled research physicist who started to cut his teeth on college physics during the Sputnik scare in the U.S. in the 1960’s (that Dr. Córdova mentioned in her recent blog “October Sky”), but then was left in other researchers’ dust after acquiring a disability via onset at mid-career at a national laboratory of major depression that progressively isolated him from the workplace and workforce.

Hi Hal,
Thanks for reading. We appreciate you stopping by and leaving a comment and your interest strengthening the scientific enterprise. However, this blog is expressly an informal outreach venue of the Division of Environmental Biology and it seems like you are mainly interested in talking to EHR. Please see the Contact NSF website, http://www.nsf.gov/help/contact.jsp, to get in touch with the relevant officials.